2.8
Quality3.6
Difficulty44%
Would Retake154
Reviews44%
Would Retake
154
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
36
4
21
3
23
2
30
1
44
What Students Say
“Elli's lectures were the best part of Biol 180”
BIOL180 - 5.0 rating“Not only a fantastic teacher, but she also really makes an effort to get to know you as an individual in a giant lecture section”
BIO180 - 5.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
70%
Textbook Required
0%
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BIOL180
3.0
(124)BIO180
2.3
(30)Difficulty by Course
BIO180
3.7
BIOL180
3.6
Reviews (154)
She's very passionate about teaching Biology 180. She's very sweet and accessible in office hours.
Not only a fantastic teacher, but she also really makes an effort to get to know you as an individual in a giant lecture section. Super accessible outside of class, and always willing to talk science with anyone interested.
Elli's lectures were the best part of Biol 180! She really made an effort to enhance student understanding and never hesitated to answer a question. She was really accessible and was so kind inside of class and out. She made the course enjoyable, despite it being difficult, and her lectures/office hours really contributed to my learning.
I love her!! She is so caring and gives amazing lectures. Having her split the class with Freeman was a perfect blend. She explains things well, and truly wants her students to understand and thrive. She's rooting for her students, which is rare in challenging stem classes.
Super caring and wholesome! This class as a whole was hard, but the professors were very approachable and made the information easy to understand. Dr. Theobald was very passionate about teaching and biology, and being in her class motivated me to be even more interested.
Dr. Theobald was an okay lecturer; she was able to get the points across reasonably well but would often come to stumbling blocks along the way of trying to explain. However, the topics of her lectures were great and it was interesting to have both Dr. Theobald and Dr. Freeman teach BIOL180.
Her lecture is so focused on the interactivity and barely explain well on the exact topics. It makes me only care about will the random call happens on me instead of learning the knowledge. She even handed out the worksheet in a 600 people lecture and only give us about 10 min to do it. She should manage time better rather than doing interactivity.
Caring. Takes the time to remember your name, and she will actually remember it. Class is interactive. She is full of energy, and makes the class laugh almost everyday. Teaches well, but is fast paced. Prepare to study outside of class, because concepts are not in depth-ly explained unless the entire class is confused. Will not regret. Taker her.
She has a ridiculous grading system which can pull down your GPA reasonably.
Professor Theobald is a great professor, but she focuses a lot on interactivity in class. I wish I could listen more of her lecture or the materials instead of a lot of group discussions.
Not the worst professor, just doesn't know her own material shes going to present. Forgets things she taught and doesn't connect her lecture slides to spoken lecture. Huge rambler. Weird grading system. Tests aren't too hard, homework is easy... just be ready to teach yourself 95% of the material.
Tests are all short-answer and difficult. Daily reading quizzes and weekly prelabs weren't too bad. The professor is super friendly but focuses too much on specific problems in lecture that aren't related to the tests. Your grade in this class is impacted by others even though they claim it isn't.
She's a great lecturer! She actually cares about her students and tries her best to teach them the content. Sometimes however she can get super specific about something but tbh that probably means that its gonna be on the test or somewhat. The grading system is standard for the intro biology series with a 2.9 average. Exams not too bad.
Bio 180 is pretty fun, especially for my first college bio class. Dr. Theobald is knowledgeable enough about the subject and has good, engaging lectures for the most part - which is hard in a class of literally 602 students at the moment. The class is the typical workload but a little lighter than the higher-level bio classes.
Elli Theobald is easily the best professor Ive ever had. She is so passionate about biology and truly wants everyone to be successful in her class. Her class has quite a bit of work, but most of it is easy. Tests are a bit of a time crunch, but theyre doable. I would definitely recommend her class to anyone interested in bio.
Dr. Theobald is easily the best professor at UW! I strongly recommend taking a class with her if you can! She genuinely cares about how you do in her class and your understanding, she is very patient and passionate! Go to her office hours!!! They're extremely helpful.
She is the best prof I met in UW! She is nice and always willing to help!
Her enthusiasm makes everyone happy, she explains concepts well and truly wants her students to succeed. For the exams, be sure to stick with things covered in lecture, and only use the textbook as a supplement. You will be fine if you do this, along with the provided study packet they post online before exams.
Professor Theobald is incredibly enthusiastic and bubbly. She cares a lot about the subject and making sure students learn. The focus on interactive lectures was sometimes helpful but also felt like it wasted quite a bit of time. Make sure you pay attention to the examples during lecture and do the practice question packets, and you should be fine!
Dr. Theobald is a great lecturer and she makes the class easy and interesting. However, it is hard to get good grades on test and it mostly depends on chances of how well you understand the questions. Overall I love her but not the class. Totally.
Professor Theobald is super sweet and you can see that she cares really hard about teaching biology. I personally liked the interactive aspect of lectures and I learned a lot as well.
She really takes the time and effort to try and get to know and help her students. This is next to impossible in lectures where there is 500 people, but she pulls it off pretty well and it shows. She's also the only prof I've heard of that hosts sessions after exams to help you do better on the next. I'd love to have her for all my bio classes.
Too friendly, makes the lectures seem annoying. Treats you like a small child.
Half of the content on her exams often test material that are not covered in class. Also, she will mark off points if you do not use specific terms that she likes. Her tests are all short-answer questions. She sometimes makes mistakes in the answers to her tests or quizzes. At least 2 Canvas surveys to do each day. She is a nice person though.
The dean should give heavy consideration as to remove Dr. Theobald from from instruction of BIO 180. I'm experiencing that the professor is leading us on to certain answers in homework & exams, but those answers are 100% wrong 100% of the time. Her response? Some hand-wavy nuance that we had to infer from text. I HATE this class passionately!
Her tests were unreasonably difficult and full of questions that we did not cover in lecture or readings. The way she phrases questions is also very confusing and can be very open ended so you never know what specific answer shes looking for. Then you get heavily marked down for your answer, even though you didnt know what you were answering.
I really liked professor Theobald... I took BIOL180 online during this spring quarter and she was very accommodating to the unprecedented circumstances and her class was the most well structured online compared to my others. She does RQs and GQs everyday which really help solidify the material. She let us take tests w/out study groups too!
I highly reccomend taking Ellis class!! She loves Biology so much it is hard not to feel intreauged in her class. She also has such a kind heart and you can tell she genuinely cares about her students. I can't reccomend her enough!!
Her teaching is very often confusing and is not a great lecturer, but she does care about the class and wants students to succeed. She is quick to respond to all types of communication, but her lack of clarity on assignments, exams, and lectures is often the reason for this need of excess communication. She tries, but often not enough.
I am still unsure how Theobald was allowed to become a professor of biology. She has little to no grasp on the nuances of the topics she teaches and cannot write grammatically correct questions to save her life. Her ability to effectively teach is also severely hindered by the fact that she has, on multiple occasions, simply taught misinformation.
I personally didn't understand any of theobald's lectures. She was very confusing and always had to watch her videos couple of times to actually understand what she is talking up and at the end got confused about the entire thing. I really don't recommend taking a class with her especially being online. But, prof. Herron was very helpful.
Professor Theobald is a very nice person with a great personality and a lot of passion. She is definitely approachable and resourceful. However, I took her 180 class during the pandemic where she had 24 hour online exams--all free response. The department claimed these exams take 1-2 hours. I took 15. It was a whole day event to take the exams.
She loves biology and cares about her students. Her lectures were a bit disorganized but she's a great prof regardless. U get used to the tests but they do take a while to finish esp with a study group! A STUDY GROUP WILL GET YOU THROUGH THIS CLASS! Used piazza to find mine. Join the class discord super helpful and do the practice exams & quiz sect
Do not take this professor unless you like writing. She make the biology class more like an English class. Exams graded by word choice and grammar. Even you are right you still can get wrong due to some word choice different with her answer key. By the way, all exams are short answer questions, no multiple choice. Lecture is useless.
(online during covid) Dr. Theobald saw an opportunity to use the pandemic to make her own life easier and she took it. She put the bare minimum effort into this class, used prerecorded lectures from months ago, rarely answered questions posted to the boards, and then expected students to attend all of her extremely busy office hours.
Personality wise she is great! However, when it comes to teaching the class and writing the exam she doesn't do well in that department. The material is not hard to understand it is literally her exam questions confusing the living out of everyone and you have to almost read her mind to get the answer correct.
The way she grades tests is super inconsistent. The answers she is looking for are incredibly specific so it is very difficult to get questions 100% correct.
The professor is bubbly and makes the class seem way too simple during the lectures, but she is trying. The exams literally have so much material that is not covered in ANYTHING. I was really stressed with the workload too, with two quizzes a day, TA section, lecture and lab due once a week.
The professor was way too enthusiastic and talked to us like kindergarteners which annoying. Despite thoroughly understanding the material and doing lots of practice exams, I often felt blindsided by the tests. The questions were worded poorly and confusingly and graded harshly. I was stressed out all the time - it was a bad experience overall.
Bio is a nice subject and the content is so fun, but unfortunately, I felt the class was unfair and so harsh for students. Bad teaching strategies and if anyone wants to take a class with her, take care of your mental health. Good luck.
This lesson was a nightmare for me; it was nothing but stress. This professor's lectures were disappointing. I did all you need to do for this class, such as practice questions written by her and questions of the day that were prior exams, yet I still found this class difficult. I learned nothing by taking her class. She shouldn't be allow to teach
Dr. Theobald is super sweet but is the worst professor I have had at UW. I didn't learn a single thing in class. Everything I took away from bio 180 was from the textbook; classes were just review sessions of readings (and the most basic elements at that). The tests were impossible and did not reflect what was covered in class nor readings.
Worst professor at the UW. Cares more about wording than anything else. They discuss equity and diversity in the bio department, but look at the stats. They only teach and grade those peoples exams better that they like, also known as the white peoples. So much inequity in this department, lack of care, this is why no POC wants to take the series.
There is someone on the inside that is keeping these biology professors here. They do not know how to teach. The entire intro series is berated with lies and no good knowledge. UW is not the place for a bio major. Watch out, these professors are unhelpful and mean especially Theobald. Care more about research than students. Wicked curves.
Dr. Theobald is nice and the class structure is adaptive to your schedule (except labs). The only problem is that exams are set up for failure. There is no way to predict how the exam goes or ways to improve your score. The exam curve doesnt help with anything. Many students have observed this and started a petition.
One of the most frustrating classes Ive ever taken. I had an extremely smart study group where we met up and did as many extra things as we could like practice problems and review and we still couldnt get good scores on the exam. Its set up for failure, the concepts are easy but the tests are a nightmare. Good luck everyone:(
Taking test feels like a random guess to see if you get the right wording, even though I feel like I fully understand everything
Elli is not a bad prof, but is a tough grader when it comes to the 4 exams that she writes herself. The lectures don't really correlate with the exams and sometimes you're on your own for questions on the exam. PLEASE, read the textbook, and do the question of the day, and really try your best to understand the concepts. A lot of self study.
The concepts are pretty easy to understand but the exams were insane. You basically needed to read Prof Theobald's mind and answer the question EXACTLY like the answer key or wouldn't get credit even if you were technically correct. Many people feel like their grades don't sufficiently reflect their actual understanding of the class material.
She has a great and bubbly personality, so she would get a 5/5 if she were a kindergarten teacher. Her grading criteria is NOT clear at all, and her exam questions are very hard to prepare for. Even if you do all the practice questions, go to UTA sessions, nothing will prepare you for the exam's ambiguity and difficulty. It was a hell hole.
in class, professor theobald makes it seem very easy but the tests are very difficult. no matter how many practice problems you do, you never know exactly what will show up on the exams. the grading is also very unclear.
Theobald isn't a great lecturer. Her slides are messy and she never gave us clear answers to questions asked during lecture. HOWEVER, she does provide a lot of study materials and did alter her tests after students raised concerns. The topics aren't hard, but if you didn't word your answers the way she wants you to, you won't get points.
Sorry to say that she was the worst professor I've had at UW so far. Lectures are very disorganized and exams have the strangest questions. She is a very sweet person though, I just think her style of teaching is more suited towards younger childrenher lectures feel like how primary or middle school teachers teach science.
Prof Theobald is a caring person but that's about it. Her exams are the hardest I've ever taken since they're extremely specific and cryptically graded while lecture is not helpful as she oversimplifies the material. She is passionate about science, and her class got me to "think like a scientist" but that won't be enough for the rest of bio series
Class was easy to do okay, hard to excel. I took AP Bio in high school so take this with a grain of salt, but I thought grading was indicative of most bio tests; material isn't hard, most work lies in learning how to take the tests. Prof cares a lot about her students and tries to make lectures as engaging as possible-- Did a lot with what she had.
She's a great person and a good lecturer. The content itself is relatively easy/organized and similar to AP Biology. However, she is overly harsh and specific on her grading for exams. If you learn how to take her tests and answer in the way she wants, this class will be a breeze for you. Homework isn't long, and labs/pre-labs are insanely easy.
The content overall wasn't too bad. The exams were a nightmare though. I had an awesome study group where we met 2-3 times a week to go over all the practice problems the class uploaded for us. It sucked when we did poorly, but we overall scored around the high 70s and low 80s on the exams. BIOl 180 is considered the worst out of the three.
Theobald genuinely spoke to us like we were children and always used a condescending tone. We learned no biology in lectures and all of the valuable info was from the textbook. Her tests didn't represent her lectures at all and you have to use specific terminology to even get partial credit. I've always excelled in bio, but she makes it impossible.
The information you learn in class is not sufficient enough to prepare you for the test and the tests felt like typing exams. The lectures are so repetitive and are just restating the reading you already read and the practice exams are way easier than the exam so it isn't really helpful as well. The grading is also super nitpicky and illogical.
she did not care if someone is cheating in our exams, she does not know how to teach, she does not follow her class policy, she has no credibility in her class, her exams are nonsense, it does not reflect your knowledge or ability, nightmare professor, please don't take her class, you will regret.
Avoid taking this class at all costs if you can. The tests will make or break you. Not only does she not give enough time but grades questions on how well you worded the response the way she wanted them to be. You must be a fast typer, thinker, writer, as tests are timed and questions are long and also the scenarios given for each set of questions
The reading, the lecture, and the exam are not related at all. Did not learn anything from her class. Did not have enough time to finish all the questions on the exams.
She goes out of her way to make it seem like she is your friend but is the WORST grader I have ever encountered. Throughout the course we were encouraged to think creatively but on every single exam answers were expected to match her criteria word for word. It was pretty demoralizing to lose points repeatedly for things like that. My TA was great!
good luck lol
Don't do the readings, it's a waste of time. The content is easy, the tests are the not. It's keyword grading so if your wording is slightly off even if you understand the question, you lose points. Get yourself a good study group because the exams are group.
Her lectures were useless, but the required readings were helpful. She really oversimplified the material, and her exams weren't necessarily difficult, but the majority of the time was spent trying to decipher her terribly worded questions. When people complained about the ambiguity she said: "Don't focus too much on what the questions are asking".
Theobald is a great option for 180. I think any dislike for her comes more from the subjectivity of test answers and thats it. In person, she has lectures that makes sense and gives plenty of practice material for exams. She is willing to listen to student feedback and cares about how students are doing. Would take her again.
Overall, Prof. Theobald did a solid job teaching BIOL 180. Yes, the exams are tough and the grading is extremely controversial, but Prof. Theobald evidently cares, is excited to teach this course and helps provide many resources to support students. The exams aren't fun, but Prof. Theobald does her best.
The exams are HARD, but in my opinion professor theobald is such an amazing teacher that its worth it. Ive never had a teacher so friendly, positive, and eager to teach. She makes you want to learn and encourages any and all questions. I think a good attitude in a teacher really rubs off on students, and she has it.
Prof. Theobald is a lovely person, however this course was one of the worst experiences of my college career. Her teaching and grading style are difficult to grasp and I dont feel like I really learned anything in this course other than that I no longer wanted to major in biology. I would only suggest this for people ready to study a lot.
This class was the worst experience of my entire college career. Eli makes herself out to be so compassionate, so understanding, but truthfully shes very impatient and does not take kindly to people who question her. She says the class is noncompetitive and she dropped out of college because of that but the HIGHEST grade on test 2 was 95%!! BS
I don't know why Dr. Theobald has such terrible ratings, she's actually great. She really cares about her students, has engaging lectures, and provides lots of opportunities to get points in her class. The class is not that bad, as long as you sign up for Bio 113 and put in time outside of class you should do fine.
She has a decent lecture that is straightforward and easy to understand. However, the class is exam-based, and the difficulty of the exam always goes well beyond her lecture. The exam is reading heavy requires people to have a deep understanding of the knowledge as well as a strong reading skill and the wording of the question is super confusing.
Shes good but has flaws. Enthusiasm is there just not the teaching ability. Study the past exams she gives out, and the practice problems of the day and exam scores will be in the 70-80 average. Set aside some time in for the class for everything builds off each other. Class is not competitive so its up to you to get all the points possible.
TOTALLY AWESOME
TOTALLYYYY AWESOME!
Both lectures and readings seem irrelevant to exam content. It is really about learning the main ideas and hoping you can apply them to arbitrary hypothetical questions on exams. Theobald is totally great and totally enthusiastic about the course which would be okay if she was actually as understanding or flexible as a professor as she portrays.
Dr Theobald is by far the best professor I've ever had. Not only does she love the material she teaches, but if you ever need help (extra study problems, resources on campus, help discerning exams) she goes out her way to provide you with all you need. This class is difficult, but it's an introductory biology course and that's expected.
Dr. Theobald is the best professor I ever had. She is so caring, genuine and will not hesitate to go above and beyond for all of her students (and she has a lot!). Her lectures are so engaging and she is clearly passionate about 180. A lot of students criticize her exams but they are actually very straightforward if you practice. I love her!
Theobald is a nice person but beware of her difficult exams. A lot of the material is not about what you know but how you can apply it to real world situations. There is a lot of statistics, interpreting of graphs, and designing hypothetical experiments. Use the study resources, read the textbook, and pay attention during lectures.
Dr. Theobald is genuinely so enthusiastic and passionate about biology - my favorite professor at UW so far! The lecture content itself is not difficult to understand, especially with an IB/AP foundation, so it only required light book skimming. The exams are challenging and do focus more on theoretical concepts, so averages were around 65-70%
Doing well in this class is not impossible if you have a solid AP Bio/Envir background. Theobald has difficult exams, but if you write fast, think fast, and know your stuff then you'll do fine. She is caring, compassionate and open to you reaching out if you need help. She plugs study groups a lot though, and they're kind of unnecessary.
Professor Theobald can be a bit or miss for some students but I loved her teaching style. If you do practice problems and stay on top of the readings then you’re set for this class. Study groups are also really helpful. The professor genuinely cares about her students and she is super enthusiastic, I would totally recommend her as a professor!
Lectures were interesting and also involved talking with those around you which helped me learn better. Theobald seems nice and accessible outside of class. Readiness questions are stupid and graded on correctness so just make sure to double check your answers. The in person exams were much harder than the online ones. Overall a doable class.
Lectures are engaging and fun. You can tell she cares about the students. Tests are very difficult though.
Prof Theobald isn't the best lecturer and it often felt like we didn't get to the point of the lesson. Exams are often "8 questions" long but have multiple subsections that all require 1-2 sentence answers and grading criteria aren't clear at all. I highly recommend having a solid study plan in place for this class if you want to pass.
Professor Theobald was a very nice person and I enjoyed her lectures and TA's. She seemed to care for the success of her students. She is known to ramble occasionally and some of her lectures were contradictory.
She's really nice, but her exams :) ARE SOOOO LONNNNGGGGG. We had 4 exams total, and only one time that we got all the questions answered. The exam might be different in person. Nice person, definitely a tough grader.
She needs Grammarly. You might know the answer but if you don't speak theobaldian and get stuff wrong because the question is confusing not because you are bad at biology. The homework and labs are worth a lot but its easy, its not curved but if you do everything and get like a 65% on your midterms and final you can get about a 2.5
Lectures are dry and exams are very toughly graded. Your answers have to use the exact words and sentences that are in the key. Her class is discouraging for students entering UW with a passion for biology. Changed my career path completely because of this class.
Eli is a super caring and passionate lecturer. She is very fair and sets out all her expectations so they are very clear. The class is set up so all information can be obtained though lectures although there is a textbook. This class was a fun learning experience and I highly suggest taking it while Eli is teaching.
She is very particular in terms of her grading when it comes to exams. You may answer a question correctly for the most part, but if you are even just one word off, then you will lose at least 50%. Additionally, her lectures are fairly dry, and surface level compared to the material you are learning
would not recommend it. Her tests often are pretty semantic, it's not enough that you understand concepts you very much need to know the exact terms
Theobald places a lot of importance in interacting with your peers, which is something I ended up really appreciating from the class and thought contributed to my learning. She is a clear and fair about her class policies, and does an excellent job of trying to create individual connections in a class of 500+ students.
Prof. Theobald is super duper nice and radiates mom vibes. Her lectures are easy to understand and she encourages cooperation amongst students. Exams are pretty long and short-answer, and graders often look for precise wording, so expect those to be kind of rough at first.
Dr. Theobald is a pretty great professor. The lectures are interesting and cover the content well. Participation in class does matter in the sense that you have to poll in every lecture for attendance. Highly recommend taking the optional bio113 class and making a study group early on. Exams are a bit vague, but it is not that hard to pass.
Dr. Theobald was one of the best professors I have had at UW, if not the best. Her tests are all short answer and very difficult at times, but somehow she makes the 400 person room feel like 30 when she's lecturing. Great teacher and the class is very future focused, which can be challenging because the whole class is application based.
Professor Theobald seems like a really nice person, but her class is so disorganized. Sometimes it seems like the practice questions aren't written by the same person that writes the exams. The lecture tries to oversimplify the material and the exams are much more complex. It feels like there is no way to actually know what will be on the test!
Theobald is amazing professor and teaches well. Her practice sheets are fairly similar to her exams. Her lectures are very participation heavy and not the best for introverts/ heavily note taking students. She will push and desires for people to join study group. Her exams are hard but everything else is pretty much effort. Make sure to study well
Professor Theobald likes to talk really fast and her lectures felt very rushed. She really encourages peer collaboration and requires mandatory lecture attendance with polling points. However, I often felt like she wasted time during lectures talking about irrelevant information. I had to do most of my learning self-taught by reading the textbook.
Easyyy concept driven class. Although there is a textbook, I never read it and got above an 85 on all exams. Just attend lecture & you will be fine because she never tests you on things she doesn't mention in lecture. Tests are written, short response (be careful with how you explain things), but it was easy especially since she's a fun lecturer!!
bio with Eli is horrendous. she's preppy & cares about bio but that doesn't make up for being a bad uni prof. in class you can argue multiple different points but the tests do not allow for this AT ALL. Her exam questions...wack. Her grading key...even more wack. would be an easy 4.0 without her absurd exams and petty grading key. good luck
She is really energetic & does an amazing job engaging with the class. She encourages collaboration & really cares about biology. With that being said she would serve better as an elementary school teacher. At the very least someone please stop letting her write exams. Everything from the exam questions to the grading of exams is a mess
Fairly easy introductory biology course, if you read the textbook and can follow along in lecture. Exam problems can be challenging, but if you understand the concepts and what is being taught in the class, you'll be fine. I didn't really get that much out of lectures, but Theobald does great focusing on what's important.
Professor Theobald was an amazing professor. Polls, labs, and RQ will save your grade do them!! Also exams are lecture heavy rather than textbook heavy which is good. Exam final isn't cumulative.
Dr. Theobald is one of the kindest, most motivated professors I have met in the STEM field. Lectures cover the textbook, exams, and little things in between. She does everything possible to prep her students for exams. However, answers that may be accepted in class may not be accepted in the exam. Recommend going to office hours.
The class is organized and you can get credit from various factors, not just exams. Since the class covers evolutionary bio, the grading criteria can be very subjective, so make sure you understand the content really well. PAY ATTENTION TO HER LECTURES - that's where most of the test content is. She was nice but could come off as patronizing.
The content isn't hard - just the tests are. Dr. Theobald does a good job on teaching the content, making sure its digestible. If you understand the content, then you'll understand the test. However, do as many practice problems as possible to make sure you understand how to ANSWER the test. That's where many lost points.
Textbook is very good. Theobald poorly conveys course expectations and the depth of content students. Exams are longgg and good luck interpreting the rubric. Well-meaning professor and lenient w grading drops, but goes on frequent tangents and is a little scatterbrained. Do a lot of practice problems, and don't bother going on exam review days
She is passionate about biology and willing to help. But between dismissing questions she doesn't know the answer to, to having no clue about the answers to her own test prep problems, there are huge gaps in her lectures. Expect a lot of filler. Exams are free response and are graded based on specific words. Daily quizzes, weekly reflections
She organizes the content pretty well, and test questions are reasonable. Minus 1 point because I simply detest ecology (and she failed to make it interesting like some extremely charismatic profs would be able to) and because a lot of concepts are oversimplified so I barely learned anything from the quarter.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED her! Don't let any bad reviews scare you about her class. The only people I have heard not like her class are those who do not like biology and are not willing to put in the work to do well. Easy to succeed if you want to learn and are willing to put in time and effort. Very caring, and enthusiastic prof, and not too much work.
Very enthusiastic professor, however, is terrible at actually teaching the content on her own tests. Tests are supposedly open ended, but they are looking for ONE very specifically worded response. Read the textbook for content and do infinite practice problems to learn how to word your answer if you want a good grade. Otherwise take the L.
She does an excellent job making student understanding the concepts. However, her test has little relations to the concept she taught in class, it feels like a ACT science section test instead of a real biology test, the amount of reading is extremely difficult especially for international students. it is impossible to finish the test on you own.
She's really funny and really good at explaining things. Tests are quite difficult but the class is very welcoming and fun.
First time I've felt compelled to leave a poor review for an instructor. Dr. Theobald does her best to be engaging and says everyone can do well in her course - that's simply not true. Make no mistake: this is a weed out course. Exams are unnecessarily hard & graded excessively harshly. If you're able to, take Bio elsewhere & don't ruin your GPA.
Dr. Theobald has very difficult tests but the labs and readiness questions are worth a lot and fairly easy points so it's not too hard to get a decent grade in her class
Professor Theobald is an extremely nice person, but her lectures are super confusing and have little to do with the exams. Tests are written response, extremely hard, AND are worth 55% of your overall grade. I definitely feel like the only way to succeed in this class is to make friends and figure things out together.
Her lectures are horrendous, she does not teach the material and goes on long irrelevant tangents that have nothing to do with the curriculum. The tests are all short answer and she grades on specific ansers that she wants but are extremely specific and not logical.
I don't usually write bad reviews for professors but we have just spent an entire 50min lecture talking about the ethics of textbooks instead of learning about actual biology when the final exam is in one week. She rarely teaches any content in class but expects everyone to know exactly how she would define complex biological concepts on the test.
I urge y'all disregard most of the negative ratings that people have given Professor Theobald. As long as you actually do the work for this class you should be fine. This is a relatively easy class. You may have to figure out how to word you answers, but practice exams make the format extremely clear. I can't recommend Professor Theobald enough
Understand the concepts being taught in lecture? Great! Doing all of the assigned coursework? Way to go! Now go do a million practice questions, write your answers *exactly* as they appear in her answer key for exams, and you may have a fighting chance in her class.
Professor is very enthusiastic and patient. Passionate and friendly and very direct.
Theobald is decent at explaining concepts and her class isn't very difficult. The grading system, is EXTREMELY picky, so be careful with how you word things. Do the practice problems and you'll be fine.
Dr. Theobald is an incredibly passionate and well-spoken professor. If you pay attention, show up to class, and do the homework you can easily get a 3.3 (which is good on uw stem standards)
you can tell that dr theobald is very passionate about what she does. it may seem like reading the assigned sections have nothing to do with lecture, but it does. reading it familiarizes you with the stuff and the lectures help you apply that knowledge. this teaching style might not work for everyone though
everyone who rated professor theobald poorly just didn't understand how the lectures would help and apply to the exams and the understanding of our knowledge. this teaching style definitely isn't for everyone but it is very effective. its a bit of a learning curve to understand how concise she wants the answers but once you got it down you're fine
Very enthusiastic, passionate, friendly professor that always tries to make sure we use all available resources. Strict grading criteria, but prof encourages a cooperative learning space instead of a competitive one.
Fine prof. No real problems with the way she taught the class, and for the most part 180 is generally chill as long as you stay on top of things. The exams are kind of annoying and you can lose points for not going in-depth enough even if it's beyond what the question was asking you.
Professor Theobald was nice, but I found this class asking us to do a lot of work. Make sure you read the readings for more in depth knowledge on key concepts you cover in lecture because it will be tested. Exams are tricky and do all practice problems necessary. She doesn't really teach that much in class, but will answer questions.
Dr. Theobald is a very nice professor who tries her best to excite you about biology. The objectives and material are clear most of the time. She is often too receptive to questions, so we have less time for content. It's also hard to decipher whether she's excited because an answer is correct or because the answer is wrong and helps us learn more.
People hate her, but Theobald is very enthusiastic about science and makes incredibly boring lectures bearable. Bio180 as a class itself has weird wording on exams that tests your writing ability more than concepts, but that isn't because of her. As long as you put effort into learning how to write in her preferred manner, you will ace this class.
One of the worst professors I've ever had.
Eli is a very nice, enthusiastic lady, but one of the toughest graders I've ever had. If you don't use specific key words in your answers on exams, you will lose points. There aren't a lot of resources for studying for exams, so take advantage of the lecture notes and anything else you can.
While Dr. Theobald has been recognized for her research on innovative anti-competition teaching practices, her application of them in her own classroom is flawed. Lectures are informative but not particularly interesting. She has also played a large role in the strict rules that now exist in the UW Bio dept. which discourage student advocacy.
she herself is a kind person but she gives 3rd grade art teacher, which isn't a bad thing but it is when shes teaching an intro class. she doesn't actually teach she expects you to know it due to the book readings but then says she doesn't like the book.. so its like bruh. Again nice person, but not a good teacher, you have to teach yourself
Theobald is an enthusiastic caring and kind professor, but she has taught Bio180 in 2024 like an elementary school class. Labs are fairly useful and help to reinforce concepts. Exams are fair but very time crunched and graded on a mark scheme. She interrupts students in lecture by saying "yeah" or "totally great" and it's hard to understand.
Theobald is caring/enthusiastic, but teaches this class like a 1st grade teacher. She interrupts students by saying "yeah yeah" or "totally great" or "this is so fun" which prevents anyone from actually understanding the questions. Lectures don't explain things in useful ways (pictures only). Exams are fair but EXTREMELY time crunched.
This class is quite archaic in its teaching style, but somehow ineffective at the same time. Exam review sessions are a waste of time, and the lectures are often interrupted by students asking questions that can easily be googled. Overall, I can tell Elli is trying to do her best, but there are some key oversights that simply cannot be ignored.
Theobald is getting some hate but she's a nice person with a unique teaching style. Tbr you can quizlet every assignment, not open the book and show up to lecture and be fine for tests as long as you practice a little bit on things you don't know. first test is deceivingly hard tho, and things gotta be worded specifically, but can always drop one
She uses outdated practice exams that are almost 10 years old, when asked for help avoided the questions and not even the TA's knew how to help when I showed the practice exams she gave out and said "w-t-f is this problem". Wastes class time on rants during exam prep days. If you can wait for another professor to teach this class then wait please.
Looks like a lovely and great professor at first, but as the quarter goes by her explanation of the lecture is kinda not helping and over the place. The exam is not easy but not hard also but the grading and her answer key sometimes kinda confusing leading to a big loss of point. She's a great professor but sometimes it she can be very confusing.
Hard to understand and lecture kinda not helping you really need to rely on your own to understand thing
This class had mandatory lectures, grade group call in KANE 130, and reading quizzes every single day. The professor was sweet but her lectures were all over the place and virtually pointless. None of the topics flowed together or corresponded to each other when they easily could have making this class much more confusing than needed.
There's an overwhelming amount of work and weekly exams. Grading is very harsh and they will dock you for the smallest things. If you don't do it how they want, you get docked. Try to argue back for points? Nothing of substance. Theobald is a nice professor but the way the class is set up is horrible. Too much work for almost nothing of substance.
everything ppl have said, but DON'T TAKE HER, take biol 180 with Mo turner!! theobald teaches like an elementary school grader but grades like we are experts. exams drop your grade SO MUCH. she's a super frustrating non helpful lecturer especially for an intro class.
Lectures as if we are kindergarteners and teaches us the bare bones concepts but grades like we are experts. I think some people appreciate her "enthusiasm" but honestly it is distracting to the course. Lectures are really not very helpful imo and really would not recommend taking biol180 with her, take it with Mo Turner, i've heard she's better.
Annoying hard to listen to during lecture. Exams graded harshly to what I exactly she wants to hear and her own made up definitions.
I LOVE PROFESSOR THEOBALD! she was so lively and easy to learn from. I could easily remember anything she said because of how excited she was about it. To really succeed in her classes though, it is necessary to do the readings before class since she teaches class as if you have. Also heavy workload but very manageable. 100/10 would take again
Prof. Theobald was such a kind, genuine professor, but her methods of teaching are very specific to a certain type of student. Her lectures have more examples than definitions, requiring knowledge of the concepts before going into the class. The workload is manageable, with readiness quizzes before each class. The TAs are really wonderful in lab!
You know what. I wrote an immensely poor rating for Theobald when I finished her class in the spring quarter for 180, but now that I have Nemhauser for 200 I take it all back. I've been enlightened. I want Theobald back.
Professor Theobald is quite enthusiastic, but her teaching style doesn't work for everyone. The workload is heavy, with mandatory attendance and daily quizzes. While the TAs are great, the lectures can feel disjointed. For study prep, try using Unstuck ai alongside the textbook.
Theobald gets a bad rap but the reality is she is so much better than a lot of BIO department professors because she actually cares. She shows up to exams and comes to every lecture with a lot of enthusiasm and passion. I would 100% choose her again.
She's a really nice person but just doesn't teach that well. I came in with bio knowledge so I didn't have to pay a lot of attention. Just use bio vocab and you're good on tests. Labs felt irrelevant at times though.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
70%
Textbook Required
0%
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BIOL180
3.0
(124)BIO180
2.3
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BIO180
3.7
BIOL180
3.6